Chung Ju Yung

Chung Ju Yung, founder of South Korea's Hyundai group of companies, proved a lot of people wrong. In the 1960s, he built Korea's first cross-country expressway, which the World Bank said wasn't economically viable. He exported the first Korean-made car to the U.S. while the industry laughed. He built Korea's first oil tanker, though competitors scoffed. But Chung prevailed. One of Asia's great industrialists, he played a leading role in lifting South Korea from a poverty-stricken mess to the world's 11th largest economy. The companies he created include the world's biggest shipbuilder, one of its hottest carmakers and one of its...